About Periodic Inspection and Risk Release

Periodic Inspection is done by the manufacturing units on the materials supplied by a vendor (usually raw material) which undergoes receiving inspection. In periodic inspection, depending on the business objectives and requirements, one or more serial numbers or quantities of a lot can be selected from the receiver and sent for a destructive or non-destructive inspection. Based on the result of this inspection, the rest of the serial numbers or quantities from that lot is then inspected using the standard receiving inspection process.

If the periodic inspection is delayed, but the material itself is acceptable to use, the receiving inspector can inspect the other parts using the standard process, but instead of directly accepting, the inspector can raise a non-conformance for the rest of the quantity which would then be dis-positioned as risk release.

Risk release means that the part is released under certain risk criteria. If a part that is released at risk is consumed as part of the manufacturing process, the consumer is notified that the selected part is dispositioned as risk release. However, the final quality inspectors must ensure that the parts are still acceptable as per the quality standards.